I have 100 x 1 ft squares and harvest about 125 lbs of crops, plus 40 or 50 items like cabbages, cucumbers and lettuce to a value of £250 at cheapest supermarket prices.

It'll never pay for what we spent making the beds, but that wasn't the intention. The food tastes so much better than shop bought.

I'm still growing lots of different varieties of each veg to see which ones do best in this system - the most productive are generally the taller things - with peas, a taller variety can make a massive difference to the amount cropped...

Most of the beds are caged in one form or another. One reason is that I have a beautiful but mental blackbird that empties the top layer of soil off any uncovered bed. The cabbages have butterfly netting to stop them laying caterpillar eggs, and the leeks get devastated by allium leaf miner if they're not covered with the (green) very fine mesh. It's a real nuisance, but a case of: "Net it or forget it!"

Given the awful state of our front garden, the back garden comes as quite a surprise to most people. They're also surprised at how much can be grown in a small space, as are people in general. If I only had a pound/dollar for the number of people that tell me that their (larger) garden is not big enough to grow veg in...

I'm in complete agreement regards how much can be grown in a small space. I may look into a cover for my parsley as there is a caterpillar here that strips as least one plant every summer. Janet was impressed that you created an outdoor living space. In the middle of the first photo in looks like you have a mini greenhouse for seedlings, is that right?

I'm not growing garlic or onions Paul. Unlike Spring cabbage and other overwintering crops, they don't clear the ground in time for me to get crops in next Spring and then a follow on crop in Summer/Autumn.

Crimson Crush and Crimson Cherry - new varieties said to be virtually 100% blight proof, but also with great taste.

Rainbow Blend - a mix of Katiebell, Lizziebell, Luciebell and Flamingo - I bought the pack as it was reduced price (50p) and just wanted the yellow variety Katiebell. However, my supposition that they would be in four separate packs was incorrect, so I don't know what I'll get other than that they'll be plum types.

Tigerella - a striped one. Only grown as it's meant to be earlier than the others.

All the above are cordons, the only bush one I'm growing is Amateur - it's known for cropping when others fail!

I have 20 plants in total, so yes, a lot of seed that will either be sown next year or go to waste.